Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper eBook

“I thought he was crazy,” went on Cap’n
Amazon, shaking his head. “I wasn’t
projectin’ much about superstitions. No,
ma’am! We had all we could do—­the
two of us—­handlin’ the wheel with
them old graybacks huntin’ us. Them old
he waves hunt in droves mostly, and when one did board
us we couldn’t scarce get clear of the wash of
it before another would rise right up over our rail
and fill the waist, or mebbe sweep ev’rything
clean from starn to bowsprit.

“It was sundown (only we hadn’t seen no
sun in a week) when that albatross was killed and
hove overboard. At four bells of the mornin’
watch one o’ them big waves come inboard.
It washed everything that wasn’t lashed into
the scuppers and took one of our smartest men overboard
with it. But there, floatin’ in the wash
it left behind, was the dead albatross!”

“Oh, how terrible!” murmured Mrs. Conroth,
watching Cap’n Amazon much as a charmed bird
is said to watch a snake.

“Yes, ma’am; tough to lose a shipmate
like that, I agree. But that was only the beginning.
Cap’n Hicks pitched the thing overboard himself.
Couldn’t ha’ got one of the men, mebbe,
to touch it. Jim Ledward says: ‘Skipper,
ye make nothin’ by that. It’s too
late. Bad luck’s boarded us.’

“And sure ’nough it had,” sighed
Cap’n Amazon, as though reflecting. “You
never did see such a time as we had in gettin’
round the Cape. And we got it good in the roarin’
forties, too—­hail, sleet, snow, rain, and
lightnin’ all mixed, and the sea a reg’lar
hell’s broth all the time.”

“One hurricane on top of another—­that’s
what we got. We lost four men overboard, includin’
the third officer, one time and another. I was
knocked down myself and got a broken arm—­had
it in a sling nine weeks. We got fever in a port
that hadn’t had such an epidemic in six months,
and seven of the crew had to be took ashore.

“Bad luck dogged us and the ship. Only,
it never touched the skipper or Tony Spadello—­the
only two that had handled the albatross. That
is, not as far as I know. Last time I see Cappy
Hicks he was carryin’ his cane with the albatross
beak for a handle; and Tony Spadello has made a barrel
of money keeping shop on the Bedford docks.

“But birds have an influence in the world, I
take it, like other folks. You wouldn’t
think, ma’am, how much store my brother Abe sets
by old Jerry yonder.”

Aunt Euphemia jumped up with an exclamation of relief.
“Louise!” she uttered as she saw the
girl, amusement in her eyes, standing in the doorway.

CHAPTER XIII

WASHY GALLUP’S CURIOSITY

“I do not see how you can endure it, Louise!
He is impossible—­quite impossible!
I never knew your tastes were low!”